


Soul Hugs

by noiproksa



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Powers, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 06:04:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16112375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noiproksa/pseuds/noiproksa
Summary: Over the years, Dean has become a pro at praying. Or has he? - Cas & Dean fluff. (Mostly gen, but can be read as Destiel pre-slash.)





	Soul Hugs

“…And then she told me that she didn’t believe in angels,” Cas said, an affronted tone to his voice as he told his story from the back seat of the Impala. “That was very rude. I would never tell a witch that I don’t believe in witches.”

Cas fell silent after that. It seemed that was the end of his story and, in typical Cas fashion, he had left out the most important part.

“So, wait, did you gank her or not?” Dean asked, risking a glance at Cas and Sam before turning back to the road.

“He smote her good,” Sam answered, a satisfied grin on his face, the one that he usually got after a successful hunt. “Guess she shouldn’t have said she didn’t believe in his species.”

“It is extremely rude,” Cas repeated.

“Well, I didn’t believe in angels before I met you, either,” Dean pointed out. “And look at me now. – Who would have thought I’d become a pro at praying, huh?”

Cas snorted.

“What?” Dean asked.

“I was laughing,” Cas explained, in his usual deadpan.

After another moment without any further elaboration, Dean was forced to press, “Why?”

“You made a joke,” Cas said as if it were obvious. “A ‘pro at praying’,” he repeated, shaking his head and huffing another laugh.

Dean still didn’t get it. He exchanged a quick look with Sam, who seemed just as lost. Cas followed Dean’s look to Sam, and seeing his frown, explained, “It’s short for ‘professional’.”

“No, yeah. I know,” Sam hurried to say, which made Cas explain further, “See, it’s funny because he is terrible at praying.”

“Uhm… Come again?” Dean asked. He had prayed to Cas so often during the last few years – prayers that were usually answered – that he definitely was not ‘terrible at it,’ thank you very much. “I’m terrible at praying?”

Cas just nodded. “So much so that I had to turn your frequency way up so that I’d be able to hear you at all.”

“Excuse me?” Dean’s voice struck an embarrassingly high note and he cleared his throat. “Gets the job done,” he said, and then, thinking about the times Cas had ignored some of his prayers in the past, he added, “Most of the time. When you’re not being a dick.”

“You think calling my name and adding a few insults is all it takes?” Cas asked. “There is a lot more to the process of praying. Getting into a meditative state, focusing on letting the thoughts travel to the angel you’re praying to…”

Dean glanced at him in the rearview mirror, mouth open. All this time and he’d been praying _wrong_? Wait – was there even a wrong way to pray?

Cas seemed to realize that he had somehow offended him and hurried to clarify, “Oh no, it’s quite all right. Not being good at praying is nothing to be ashamed of, Dean. You didn’t grow up in a devout family, you never learned how to pray, so it stands to reason that you would-” He paused there for a second and seemed to change what he was originally going to say, “-That you wouldn’t be quite as good at it as, say, Jimmy was, is all I’m saying.”

Dean was rendered speechless, still trying to process the fact that apparently, his prayers were not loud enough or some bullshit like that. And why had Cas never told him that before?

While he was still trying to come up with something to say, Sam butted in. “What about my prayers?”

“They suck, too,” Dean immediately answered. “Right Cas?”

Cas seemed to consider this for a moment and finally settled on saying, “Your voice can be a bit grating, but your prayers feel more… pleasurable.”

“Pleasurable?” Dean repeated incredulously, his eyebrows shooting up as he turned around to look at Cas, which got him a yelp of “Eyes on the road!” from Sam.

Once Dean had made sure they were back on the right lane, Cas answered, “Well, human prayers are supposed to feel good for angels. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Dean repeated, but as so often, the sarcasm was lost on Cas, so Dean raised his eyebrows at him to convey that he needed more of an explanation. The road ahead was empty and flat, making it easy to take glances into his mirror to watch the angel as they spoke.

“Yes,” Cas confirmed. “To help strengthen the bond and make the angel want to answer the prayers and help the human in need.”

“Really?” Sam was in geek mode almost immediately, half-turning in his seat to get a better view of the angel in the back, probably giddy about learning something new about angels. “You never told us.”

Cas squinted at them and simply said, “This is common knowledge.” He looked as if he was trying to figure out whether they seriously hadn’t been aware of that fact before.

“Common knowledge to _angels_ perhaps,” Dean mumbled.

That comment seemed to be enough for Cas to believe that their ignorance on that topic was real, because he went on. “Prayers can feel very pleasant to an angel. It’s like a…” He frowned, apparently trying to come up with a fitting comparison. “…like a hug – only from a human soul.”

“Soul hug? Sure.” Dean had learned to just roll with it whenever a weird new tidbit about angels was revealed. Just par for the course when you had an angel as a best friend.

Sam on the other hand, still in full on geek mode, wanted some more information. “So that’s like a spiritual thing, right? But how does it work? I mean, does it also feel… pleasurable if the human is in distress, calling out for help? Isn’t that kind of warped to feel good while they’re suffering?”

Dean rolled his eyes at his brother. Sammy was probably itching to get pen and paper to take down notes. Dean himself was not at all holding his breath, waiting for Cas’ answer to those questions.

“It’s because receiving a prayer releases endorphins and, as I explained, it makes the angel want to help the human in need. So no, Sam, it does not seem ‘warped’ to us.”

“What, so angels have _endorphins_ now?” Dean gawked at him. He hoped Sammy would ask a few more nerdy questions, like if that only worked if they were in their vessels or if the endorphins also got released if the angel decided not to answer the prayers. He hoped not. It would serve Cas right for ignoring his daily prayers back when they had been stuck in Purgatory. Maybe there was even some form of punishment chemicals that got released if they didn’t answer a human’s prayer. Unlikely, but a guy could dream…

“I am using the English language here to communicate with you,” Cas’ slightly unnerved voice broke through his thoughts. “Do you prefer that I say ‘Kalapryktoruna-ka’? – ‘Endorphins’ is the closest approximation in human terminology.”

“So prayers make you produce Kalapryktoruna-ka?” Sam repeated slowly to make sure he understood it right – and leave it to Sammy to pronounce that word correctly on the first try.

Since Dean was sure he’d forget that word in about two seconds, he corrected, “Angel endorphins.”

“Well, some more than others,” Cas said, then leaned towards Dean. “Yours, not so much. They are rather irritating to listen to, in fact. If you were just any human, I would not be inclined to answer your prayers at all.”

Dean shot Sammy a dark look when he tried to stifle a laugh. “Yeah, well. At least I don’t have a grating voice,” he griped, which made Sam roll his eyes.

*********

Dean’s pride had been injured, and during the next few days his thoughts circled back to his prayer technique that apparently left a lot to be desired. It irked him that, according to Cas, even Sammy was better at it and so, one evening after he had excused himself for the night, he decided to use his laptop to look up the right way to pray.

The first few sites were a bust and Dean was about ready to give up when he turned up a pretty neat site with a step-by-step instruction and pictures. The headline read ‘How to Pray to Your Guardian Angel,’ which wasn’t exactly what he had been looking for, but Cas was kind of like their guardian angel, so it was close enough, he figured.

It turned out that Dean hadn’t even gotten the very first step correct. It said something about sitting in a comfortable chair and making sure you were relaxed. Usually when he was praying to Cas, he was walking around and highly agitated. Since Dean was quite comfortable on his bed, leaning against the bedpost, he thought that might work in place of a comfortable chair. When he turned his attention back to the words on the screen, the sentence “Focus on communicating with your angel” caught his eye. Cas had mentioned something about focus as well.  That sounded easy enough. _Cas, Cas, Cas._ Yeah, he had the focus thing down pat.

Step 2, ‘Breathe from your belly’ was a bit trickier. Dean felt utterly ridiculous, trying to concentrate on the right breathing technique, like he was a woman in a Lamaze class. He was about to give up for the second time when Cas’ words drifted through his mind again. _“He is terrible at praying.”_

With a sigh he skimmed through the next step, which told him that it helped to visualize a ‘white light surrounding you.’ He furrowed his brow. What was this white light bullshit? Was that supposed to be Cas’ grace?

Dean had just reached step 4 of 7; “If you’re ready, say: Guardian angel, come to me.” – Yeah, no way was he gonna call him that. – when Cas suddenly appeared next to his bed.

Dean slammed the laptop closed with a swear, wondering if Cas was just popping in because of some unrelated reason or if this praying thing had actually worked. Dean hadn’t even said anything out loud yet. “Hey,” Dean said. “What are you doing here?”

Cas squinted at him warily. “You called.”

Well, that answered that question. But did that mean that it had worked or had Cas answered his ‘call’ so quickly because he had ‘turned Dean’s frequency way up’?

“So… Why did you call?” Cas asked when Dean didn’t say anything. Oops. Dean realized that he hadn’t even thought of an excuse for praying to Cas in the first place.

“Yeah, right. Just wanted to ask if you got any leads on that angels versus werewolves type situation in Utah?” Dean covered quickly.

Cas didn’t seem at all convinced. He was still looking at Dean through narrowed eyes when he answered. “No. I said I would inform you if that were the case.”

“Right. Yeah. Okay.”

They just stared at each other for a moment, neither of them speaking until Cas prompted, “That was all?”

There were a couple things Dean might have wanted to ask. Since when did he answer silent prayers? And had his prayer been louder or… better than before? But that would mean he’d have to admit that he had tried to improve his praying technique and Cas hadn’t mentioned any changes, so…

“Yes. – Yes, that was all.”

“Okay then.” With a whoosh of his wings Cas was gone.

*********

Over the course of the next few days Dean tried to refine his technique. He prayed to Cas again and again for reasons that became increasingly ridiculous. (“Cas, I am praying to you to come eat dinner with us.“ – And then, after a flutter of wings: “I don’t eat. You know that.” – “Just sit your feathery ass down.”)

Cas always appeared immediately, almost as soon as Dean called his name, sometimes even shortly before.

One morning when Dean was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast and praying to Castiel, Cas appeared with a whirl of wing beats and a short-temper. “What is it now?” he snapped.

“Uhm…” Dean hadn’t expected an angry Cas, and stuttered out the first thing to come to mind. “Just wanted to ask if you ever heard of a monster that eats earwax?”

“No.” Dean winced a bit at the harsh answer. “That seems like the kind of question you could have asked Sam.”

“Ask me what?”

Leave it to Sam to interrupt in the worst possible moment. “Already did, he doesn’t know of any either,” Dean lied through his teeth and shot Sam a warning look, hoping he would cover for him. Sam didn’t look happy about it, but years of having each other’s backs made him keep his mouth shut.

Cas wasn’t paying attention to him anyway. “You have summoned me a lot these last few days,” he said. _Summoned?_ Maybe google was full of shit and instead of improving, the prayers had become worse. Perhaps the only reason Cas had answered quickly was to make him _stop_ praying.

“I do have a cell phone, you know?” Cas continued. “Maybe you can try that for less pressing matters.” The next second he was gone.

Dean didn’t have to look at Sam to know what expression he had on his face. “Don’t,” he said. Sam sighed, but kept his mouth shut.

*********

Getting in touch with Cas via cell phone worked well enough. They’d done it before, after all. Dean had to remind himself that he didn’t even _like_ praying. Praying was for religious nuts and wimps. And if Dean let Sam do the calling – well, Cas didn’t comment on it. Probably didn’t even notice. Sam did try to comment on it once or twice, but Dean was good at avoiding talking about feelings and stuff, so he cut Sam off before he even got started, or simply walked away when he felt a ‘feelings talk’ coming on.

Dean was sitting in his room, browsing on his laptop idly, and trying not to think about the strange way Cas had looked at him earlier that day after Sam had called him for information on an Enochian sigil.

The sound of wings behind him made him turn around.

“Dude. I did not call you. Get your frequencies straight,” Dean said.

“No… I… Yes, I am aware of that. Just…” Cas’ eyes flitted away, looking around the room before they returned to Dean’s. “You haven’t prayed in a while.”

“Seriously?” Dean asked gruffly. “You’re the one who told me to piss off.”

“I did not…” Cas started, but Dean spoke right over him.

“You were all upset with me that I prayed to you too much. So I stopped. Now you’re upset that I’m _not_ praying? – Get your feathers straight, you’re giving me whiplash here.”

“I was ‘upset’, yes,” Cas admitted. “But it was… it was because you were suddenly so infuriatingly _good_ at praying. It made me want to drop everything else immediately and answer your prayers. And then, of course, I got ill-tempered when you missed a day and forgot to pray to me…”

Dean blinked. And then he blinked again. _Kalalypto-somethingsomething. Angel endorphins._ He had totally become a pro at praying and _that’s_ why Cas had become an irritable angel.

“…Of course, the headaches didn’t help…” Cas continued talking while Dean was having his epiphany. _Wait, headaches?_ Son of a bitch. There really were punishment chemicals. Prayer withdrawal. Whatever.

“Wait. You were hopped up on my prayers?” Dean asked once his mouth caught up with his brain. A grin spread slowly across his face. “So what you’re saying is that you’re addicted to my _awesome_ prayers.”

“No… that’s not what I… I’m just…”

“It’s okay,” Dean reassured him with a toothy grin. “Easy enough fix to give you.” He closed his eyes and concentrated on sending a silent prayer Cas’ way. He had left out the last step so far: Thanking the angel to tell him you were grateful for the help. It seemed like the polite thing to do.

When he opened his eyes again, he could practically see the wrinkle on Cas’ forehead disappear. Wow. Heady feeling, thinking that _he_ was responsible for that.

“You’re welcome,” Cas mumbled, rubbing his neck, and it took Dean a moment to figure out that it was a verbal answer to his silent prayer. “Also, I feel I should say… your prayers are my favorite now.”

“Better’n Sammy’s, huh?” Dean couldn’t resist saying.

“Yes. – So… I just wanted to say… Feel free to pray. Whenever. I don’t mind.”

Dean had to smile at that. _Soul hug_ , his mind supplied. It was kind of like the angel version of asking for a hug. But Dean was human and soul hugs wasn’t really something that he understood. So when he got up and said, “Sure thing,” he patted Cas’ shoulder. An angel might be content with a prayer, but humans needed physical contact from time to time after all.

And since the shoulder pat didn’t really seem adequate and Cas was looking at the hand on his shoulder with a puzzled expression, he pulled Cas into the human version of a hug.

“Anytime, bud.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, feedback is highly appreciated!  
> (I am also open to prompts / requests.)


End file.
